Stronger Than I Am
by ekjd4etnty
Summary: He left her with a reminder... to bad he'll never know...


Maria DeLucca silently crept out of her beloved daughter's room. Michaela slept peacefully every night; something that both amused and perplexed her mother. Maria had worried about her baby's happiness and peace of mind since she was born. When Maria had cried the first time she'd held her tiny daughter, the nurses thought that it was out of happiness, the labor had been difficult, but Alex and Liz both knew better. They knew that the eighteen-year-old wept because her little girl would never know her father. Michael had left a year before. He and Max and Isabel had found a way home, and even though he loved Maria, he had to go. The night before the ship came, he and Maria had made love out in the desert. It was their first time, and Maria knew it would be her last. She would never love anyone as much as she loved, and still does, him. But, still, he left the next day. A few weeks later, she discovered that a tiny being was growing inside of her. And now, exactly two years after he'd left, it still amazed her as to how her baby could sleep through the night, knowing that she would never meet her father. Maria herself barely could. _Oh, well, _ Maria thought as she walked into her own room. She switched on the radio as she flopped onto the bed. She had found that she slept better when she listened to music. A familiar song came on the radio as Maria drifted off to sleep, whispering the words.

_**Things around here haven't changed much**_

_**It's all pretty much the same stuff day after day**_

_**The only thing that keeps me goin'**_

_**Seems to be our baby girl I'm trying to raise**_

_**She's my life my morning angel**_

_**Always seems to find the rainbow after the rain**_

_**Lately she's so busy growin'**_

_**I don't even think she knows you've gone away**_

Maria was in that stage of being asleep and being awake. She was in what she called her 'flash-stage'.

Flash

Her and Michael making love on the sand...

Flash

Michael's ship leaving, him inside, looking out the window and waving to her, tears in both their eyes...

Flash

The birth of Michaela...

Flash

_**She's finally learned to say goodbye**_

_**She's sleepin' through the night**_

_**She don't wake up cryin'**_

_**And she's walkin' on her own**_

_**She don't need no one holdin' her hand**_

_**And I hate to admit she's stronger that I am**_

Maria had finally drifted off to sleep, dreaming, again, of Michael. This dream was different, though. It was like she could feel him there with her. As she dreamed of her beloved entering her dream, she let go of Michaela's hand. Her little baby raced over to her daddy and he scooped her up into a big hug. Tears ran down his cheeks as he and Maria walked into the sunset with Michaela perched on his arm.

_**She ain't crackin' under pressure**_

_**First one step and then another she goes along**_

_**And if she falls and skins her knee**_

_**She cries a while and smiles at me and just goes on**_

_**To many things that she can teach me**_

_**Full of life and so completely innocent**_

_**She still says she loves her daddy**_

_**Goes on just like nothin' happened**_

_**Forgives and forgets**_

Flash

Michaela's first word...

Flash

Michaela's first step...

Flash

The last time she, Alex and Liz saw each other...

Flash

_**She's finally learned to say goodbye**_

_**She's sleepin' through the night**_

_**She don't wake up cryin'**_

_**And she's walkin' on her own**_

_**She don't need no one holdin' her hand**_

_**And I hate to admit she's stronger that I am**_

Maria twisted and turned as her dream turned into a nightmare. Her Michael was leaving her again.

_**She's just like her old man**_

_**Stronger than I am**_

Maria bolted awake. She knew that Michael had had the strength to leave her. To go to a planet and fight for it when he wanted to stay and love her, but it seemed as if she and Michael had communicated in that dream. She laughed. _Yea. Right. Communicated. You crack yourself up, DeLucca._ Her laughter turned into heart-wrenching sobs as she wished with all her heart that it was true.

Themalico bolted awake. He was used to the name now. He hadn't been called Michael for the past two years, except by Max and Izzy. _What the hell was that?_ he thought. Something about him and Maria, and there was a little girl there, too. A little girl with his brown eyes and little smirk, and Maria's blonde, bouncy curls. She'd run into his arms and he'd picked her up and spun her around. Then he, Maria, and the little girl perched on his arm walked off into the sunset. The dream ended with him leaving her again. And, in the background, Michael could faintly hear two lines from Maria's favorite song. _Well, _he reasoned, _her favorite song when I left. If I can recall them correctly...yes, it was something like _'She's just like her old man; Stronger than I am.'

_Stronger than I Am is by Leeann Womack_


End file.
